Breakable ring for hydrants, street lamp columns, metal or concrete posts, etc.



Oct. 18, 1932. BANKS 1,883,467

BREAKABLE RING FOR HYDRANTS, STREET LAMP COLUMNS, METAL 0R CONCRETEPOSTS, ETC

Filed NOV. 8. 1930 Jwoentoz F BM 104.40? I UWuaz...

Patented Oct. 18, 1932 In the drawing,

UNITEDC STATES PATENT OFFICE FREDERICK R. BANKS, OF ELMIRA, NEW YORK,ASSIGNOR TO THE KENNEDY VALVE MFG. CO., OF ELMIRA, NEW YORK, ACORPORATION OF NEW YORK BREAKAIBLE RING FOR HYDRANTS, STREET LAMPCOLUMNS, METAL OR CONCRETE POSTS, ETC.

Application filed November 8, 1930. Serial No. 494,418.

This invention relates to a breakable ring for hydrants, street lampcolumns, metal or concrete posts, etc., the object being to provide abreakable ring for connecting sections of hydrants, street lamp columns,metal or concrete posts, etc., together at a point adjacent to impact sothat when a moving object strikes one of these stationary objects, thebreakable ring will break and allow the sections to separate, wherebythey can be readily united by the insertion of a new. breakable ring,thereby saving the expense and time in repairing such objects.

Another object of my invention is to provide a breakable ring which isespecially adapted to be used in connecting such stationary objects asabove referred to and so constructed that it can be designed to break atan impact equivalent to a 3000 pound car moving at 12 miles per hour, orat any breakable point so that in localities where pleasure cars intraflic predominate, a light breakable ring could be used and inlocalities where .the expense of an entire new hydrant or a.

major part thereof and the cost of installing the same.

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will behereinafter set forth and the novel features thereof defined by theappended claims.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a fire hydrant showing the applicationof my improved construction of breakable ring thereto;

Figure 2 is a detail vertical section through a portion of the hydrantshowing the application of my breakable ring;

'Figure 3 is a'detail top plan view of a portion of a ring;

being externally threaded as shown at 4 and 5, over which is adapted tobe placed an internally threaded breakable ring 6 which is internallyannularly reduced as shown at 7 to reduce the strength of the ring atthe point of connection between the sections 1 and 2, so that when thering is struck by a moving object, such as an automobile, the ring willbreak at its weakest point, which is in alignment with the connectionthereby preventing the sections 1 and 2 from being injured and allowingthe sections to be readily connected together again by substituting anew ring.

The exterior surface of the breakable ring is fluted or suitably shapedas shown at 8 in order to allow it to be readily inserted or removed andit will be noticed that the ex 'ternal fluted portion extends to eachside of the weakened portions so that the sections of the breakable ringremaining on the sections of the hydrant after the ring has been brokencan be readily removed.

In Figure 4 I have shown the hollow columns, such as a post, formed ofsections 9 and 10, the lower section being formed with a shoulder 11against which the lower end of a breakable ring 12 is adapted to abut,said breakable ring being in the form of a slip ringand adapted to beplaced over packing rings 13 and 14 arranged over the exterior of thesections of the post so as to form a liquid tight joint between thesections. In this form the ring is also annularly reduced to weaken thesame as shown at 15 and this ring is adapted to be placed at a pointadjacent to contact so that when struck by a moving object, the ringwill break at its weakest point and allow the sections to separatewithout injuring the same whereby the sections can be readilyre-connected together.

or-post composed of sections 16 and 17, which are provided with annularflanges 18 and 19, bet-ween which is adapted to be arran -ed a breakablering 20, which is also provic ed with annular flanges 21 and 22, theflanges 18 and 19 of the sections 16 and -17 being provided withopenings in alignment with the openings formed in the flanges 21 and 22of the breakable ring 20 and through which bolts 23 and 24 are adaptedto pass for securing the ring between the flanged ends of the sectionsof the column.

In assembling the device packing rings 25 and 26 are preferably securedbetween the abutting flanges of the rings and sections so as to form atight joint where the column is used for a conduit of liquid, but itwill, of course, be understood that when such a device is used inconnection with a post or the like, these rings could be eliminatedwithout departing from the spirit of my invention. This ring is alsointernally (or externally) annularly reduced as shown at 27 to weakenthe same in order to allow it'to break centrally by impact from a movingobject.

In all of the embodiments of my invention, I have shown a breakable ringarranged for connecting sections of a stationary object together, whichring is arranged adjacent to the point most liable to receive the impactfrom a moving body so that when a moving body strikes such a stationaryobject, the ring will break, thereby preventing the sections of theobject from being injured and allowing the sections to be readily re--connected together by substituting a new breakable ring.

From the foregoing descrlptlon 1t W'lll be seen that Ihave provided adevice intended to centralize the control, not only of the impact forcerequired to cause a break, but to also center thedamage within apredetermined inexpensive section so that a comp-aratively lightcasting, easily handled and inexpensive to manufacture, may be carriedby the user, thereby preventing excessive damage to expensive objectsand to further provide a standardized means of quickly repairing breaksof this nature in stationary objects.

\Vhile in the drawing and specification I have shown and describedcertain details of construction of forming a breakable ring forconnecting sectional stationary objects tobreak by an impact from themoving object,

thereby preventing the major sections of the object from being injuredto any extent.

What I claim is:

1. A hydrant formed of a base section hav-- thread-ed on the adjacentthreaded ends ofsaid sections for securing said sections to- I gether,saidbreakable ring being annularly reduced in line with the abuttingends of said sections to form a weakened portion.

i 2. A column comprising a pair of sections disposed end to end inabutting relation, a coupling member for normally holding said sectionstogether and in aligned position, said member comprising a ring forembracing circumferential engagement with both of said section ends, andsaid ring being provided with an'estricted frangible section atsubstantially the point of engagement of said adjacent ends.

A column comprising a pair of sections disposed end to end in abuttingrelation, the adjacent ends thereof being threaded exteriorly, and acoupling member for normally holding said sections together and inaligned position, said member comprising a frangible, interiorlythreaded ring for threadable engagement with both of said adjacentsection ends.

4. A column comprising a pair of sections disposed end to end inabutting relation, the adjacent ends thereof being threaded exteriorly,a coupling member for normally holding said sections together and inaligned position, said member comprising a frangible, interiorlythreaded ring for threadable engagement with both of said adjacentsection ends, and said ring having a restricted groove extendingentirely around its inner surface whereby to localize the fragibilitythereof.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aiiix my signature.

gether, I wish it to be understood-that I do not wish to limit myself toany particular details of construction as myinvention consists broadlyin connecting stationary objects. such as hydrants, street lamp columns,metal posts or the like, together by a breakable ring which is arrangedat a predetermined distance from the surface and adjacent to such apoint most liable to be struck by a moving object so that the breakablering will

